Series 1 Episode 42: A Bargain of Necessity

Serial: The Reign of Terror
Episode: 5 (A Bargain of Necessity)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Dennis Spooner
Director: Henric Hirsch
Producer: Verity Lambert
Original Air Date: 05/09/1964

WHEN I LOOK AT YOU, HE IS STANDING THERE (and other stories)

In which Ian gets cuffed but kicks some ass, Barbara tells Ian to read a damn book before he starts mansplaining the moralities at play in the French Revolution, the Doctor is the slyest of the sly, and Susan spends the whole time behind bars.

Welcome back to the Animated Adventures of Team Tardis! Just one more week of trying to make gifs from (actually rather good) animations that are infuriatingly difficult to lipread.

So Ian has been betrayed by Creepy Léon, having walked right into his trap in an ironic twist for a character who is usually so on it in terms of knowing the rules of Classic Who (e.g. don’t split up, don’t split up, and don’t split up).

Ian gets chained up in what I’m going to assume is a blow for all those kinky, whumpy William Russell fans who would have liked nothing better than to see their heartthrob getting the Fifty Shades treatment in the flesh. As for me, I’m currently in squeamish hell as I can watch pretty much anything as long as I don’t have the sound effects to go with it, which is bad luck, as these animated episodes do rather rely on the sound. I do hope they don’t hurt him too badly in their quest for information he doesn’t have.

Your chains are forged by what you say and do.

Back at the prison, Babs and the Doctor are catching up. He tries to teach her another basic rule of Classic Who, which is that ‘you can’t get rid of the old Doctor as easily as that’. These two warm my heart. Also, is this the first ‘I’ll explain later’ moment of the show or have I just not been paying attention? Probably the latter. Because he’s not going to talk about how he escaped from the burning house right now. He does, however, want to know where Susan is and whether she’s well; Babs apparently lies through her teeth when she tells him Susan just had a slight fever but is recovered now. It’s amazing how quickly women can recover from debilitating ailments when it’s no longer dramatically convenient for them to be fucking useless.

Anyway, the Doctor reckons they need to find Chesterton and get back to the ship. Unfortunately for them, it seems that Lemaitre is listening outside the door when Barbara tells the Doctor in great detail exactly where Ian is and at whose house they’re all staying. Bugger.

Before he can eavesdrop any further, however, Lemaitre is called away by the creepy jailer, who says Robespierre wants to see him pronto. Lemaitre tells the jailer that Susan is to remain in her cell and that under no circumstances should her door be opened…or else the jailer gets guillotined. I wonder whether Carole Ann Ford is on holiday this week?

Back in the cells, Babs is berating herself for trusting the physician. The Doctor is pretty chill about it, tells her not to blame herself, and says what we’re all thinking: ‘As it happens, everything has turned out very well. Might have taken us ages to find each other.’ Well, quite.

The Doctor reckons they’ll have no trouble getting out of Dodge seeing as he now has some influence; Babs teases him about his fancy schmancy gear and they are both generally adorable.

Anyway, the Doctor’s amazing plan is…that Babs just walks out of the prison. I wish oh I wish we had this episode with real people just for the scenes between these two, because her reaction to this alone is priceless: ‘Are you serious!?’ Also, we do now have a genuine ‘I’ve no time to explain, just do as you’re asked’ moment. Ugh with the obedience thing but hey at least Babs has the gumption to go along with it rather than flaking or freaking out. In a moment I will forever appreciate, she asks about Susan, which is entirely in character given the fact that she was considerate enough of her Space Daughter to accept death rather than leave her behind…which is the kindest way of putting it. The Doctor says he’ll look after Susan and follow later. I do think that part of the reason these two get along so splendidly is that the Doctor knows Babs will always look out for his grandchild. Then this happens:

God love the animators for giving Babs a gloriously sceptical expression. Also, how meta has this entire scene been what with this and his comments about everything actually working out conveniently well?

The Doctor goes off to bullshit the jailer about needing to see Lemaitre. He also tells the jailer that Babs is a big cheese in the traitor world and knows alllllll the traitors but would ‘rather die first than betray her friends’…which is actually true. He tricks the jailer into suggesting that if Babs escapes she could be followed and would lead them to the traitors. This is expert manipulation and absolutely classic One.

So of course Babs escapes. APPLAUSE.

Back at Aristo HQ, Jules is bursting in and yelling for Ian, Barbara, and Susan…none of whom are there, obv. Because Ian is still chained up and being goaded by a guard who is bragging about how his boss really knows how to make people talk…BY LEAVING THEM ALONE AND LETTING THEM THINK. Mate, that’s how you give enterprising sorts like Ian time to hatch an escape plan. The soldier, however, has other ideas…but is prevented from beating Ian up by Creepy Léon, who is doing the classy villain thing of apologising for his bad-tempered minions.

Ian's evil alter ego emerges from the depths of his being.

Anyway, turns out Creepy Léon doesn’t want to hurt Ian really (his words), but reckons Ian has information that will help the cause he believes in—the Revolution. He tells Ian that if he only knew what France was like before the Bastille, he’d understand; Ian, irritably, says that he does understand but can’t help him.

I continue to be fascinated by Ian’s role in the politics of the Revolution. He’s certainly more to the left of the political spectrum than Babs, as we’ve seen from a) his reluctance to take advantage of the Thals’ grievances against the Daleks to get the Tardis working again (which resulted in some rather problematic spin on his part to justify it to himself), b) his scepticism in the first half of The Velvet Web, and c) his horror at Barbara’s plans for top-down revolution in The Aztecs (to name a few examples); he also had some scathingly Orwellian things to say about the Sensorites’ caste system a few episodes back. But maybe that Orwellian streak is the answer; maybe he has an overall anti-totalitarian stance that overrides his generally leftist principles. I’m rambling. But I will never not love it when the humans are placed in a position where they have to choose between their principles and getting everyone safely the hell out of wherever they happen to be.

Ahem. Anyway, after some blustering from Creepy Léon, an increasingly exasperated and defiant Ian decides to tell the truth: he flew here with three friends—that’s three friends, not one co-worker, a space child, and an alien kidnapper—and that when he left England it was 1963. Léon says nothing, but gestures to one of his goons to start inflicting some physical damage. (Ian, if you’d listened to Babs a bit more, you could’ve bullshat your way out of this one with a few choice made-up names. Just sayin’.)

But phew! Before this episode has a chance to descend into that torture scene from Casino Royale, Jules turns up with a gun and starts shooting people. Well, he shoots a guard. What he does next is THROW his gun at Léon, which hits him in the head. Which is an odd choice, given that guns travel through the air far less quickly than bullets. Ian swings himself up on his chains and quite literally kicks some soldier ass, then warns Jules out of the way of a bullet from Léon, which ends up in the back of a soldier Jules is fighting. Jules picks up a rifle, calls Léon the enemy of the people, and shoots him. Blimey, that was action-packed. And animated!

Jules releases Ian, tells him about Babs and Susan being arrested (thereby validating Ian’s Bad Feeling), and takes him back to Aristo HQ.

Back at the prison, Susan is in her cell…and her grandfather is at the door! Hurraaaaaaay! She, too, wants to know how he got away from the farmhouse, but once again he ‘can’t explain that now, child’. Maybe he just wants to take the story of how he maybe murdered that guy on the road to Paris to his actual grave. Anyway, he brings her up to date but has to go and talk to the jailer again to engage in more manipulative bullshit. This time, he acts surprised and outraged that the jailer hasn’t been ‘skulking after’ Barbara; the jailer, of course assumed the Doctor was going to be doing the skulking. Chillingly, he’s convinced the jailer it was in fact his idea, so it’ll be the jailer who gets it in the neck from Lemaitre. I mean, I don’t care what happens to the jailer because he’s a creep who grossly propositioned Babs a few episodes ago, but One really is a little shit.

Anyway, he tries the same trick with Susan, saying that if they let Susan go, he will personally follow her and make sure she leads them to the traitors. The jailer, however, has received specific instructions from Lemaitre not to let Susan go under any circumstances. The jailer won’t budge.

Gif represents Susan's character development for this serial.

Back at Robespierre’s gaffe, Lemaitre has arrived. Robespierre tells him about a meeting that’s happening tomorrow night of the Paris Commune, in which, to cut a long story short, he’s going to be indicted. There’s some delightful shoehorning in of Actual History when Robespierre says that ‘tomorrow, the 27th of July 1794, will be a date for history’ if the plot goes ahead. Which, y’know, it will. (Spoiler alert: he’s arrested, and then guillotined the following day.) Anyway, Robespierre suspects some dude called Paul Barras is key to the plot and he’s having a meeting tonight; Robespierre wants to know what’s going on, and it’s Lemaitre’s job to find out.

There’s actually quite a lot of actual history packed into this serial. Which is educational. And annoying for me, because I keep having to check Wikipedia—that most revered of sources.

Lemaitre leaves the room, mutters to some soldiers, and buggers off.

Back at Aristo HQ, Ian is once again stunned to find the Space Bae waiting for him. She fills him in about having found the Doctor, and they giggle about how he’s zipping about running the revolution dressed as an ostrich:

Well, quite. Also, it’s good to see Ian cheerful again now he knows his Space Bro is still alive and ridiculous: ‘So no doubt we’ll get the whole story, several times.’

The affection these two have for the Doctor is lovely. Also it’s clear how much their relationship is weirdly held together by the Doctor and Susan. Obviously their friendship has solid foundations on earth, but its development is very much dependent on their role within their new Space Family.

Anyway, Babs wants to know what Ian’s been doing to his wrists; Ian gives an evasive, James Bond answer. When she asks about Léon, however, Jules tells her that he killed him, and that Léon was the traitor they were looking for. Babs is clearly giving them daggers, because both Ian and Jules start insisting on how it was the only way, how much Léon deserved it, and what a big old traitor he was. Then this happens:

OH JOY OF JOYS THE HUMANS ARE ARGUING ABOUT HISTORY AGAIN! I think I actually like it more when they have these debates than when they’re being cute. Also, I do appreciate Ian throwing in that he didn’t actually kill anyone on the sly, in a vain attempt to get himself out of the doghouse.

Oh but it gets better, because now Jules is cutting in:

JULES: And what about Robespierre? I suppose you think—
BARBARA: Well just because an extremist like Robespierre—!
IAN: Oh Barbara, Jules is our friend! He saved our lives!
BARBARA: I know all that! The revolution isn't all bad, and neither are the people who support it. It changed things for the whole world, and good, honest people gave their lives for that change.
IAN: Well I think he got what he deserved.
BARBARA: You check your history books, Ian, before you decide what people deserve!

YES BARBARA!!! FUCKING YES!!! This is what I have been waiting for this entire serial, and I’m so glad it’s Barbara who actually said it. And boy does she school Ian, who tries to shut her down and fails MISERABLY. And I will fight anyone who tries to tell me this is because Babs has the hots for Creepy Léon, because what’s happening here is Barbara giving a shit about history beyond the immediate concern of ‘which side do we take to make it as easy as possible to get back to the Tardis?’. It’s hugely interesting to me that on Skaro it was Ian who reacted to the immediate situation on the ground and was unwilling to abuse the Thal/Dalek conflict for their own ends, whereas here in the midst of human history is Barbara who is unwilling to simplify the conflicts embedded in that history and to take whatever side means getting the team back together. Barbara is pissed off at Ian because he has narrowed it down to his immediate surroundings, where the good guys are the ones who are willing to help them escape and the bad guys are the ones who have done injury to him and his friends, never mind the bigger picture. Also, her last line is utterly, utterly blistering, and cuts Ian right down to size, curbing his increasingly Doctor-like tendency to decide that anyone who gets in their way is collateral damage. Maybe its not the influence of the humans per se that prevents the Doctor whacking side characters with a spade willy-nilly; maybe it’s just Barbara.

Also, in this week’s Wildhorn shoehorn, I present Barbara’s inner monologue when presented with Ian being a dick:

Back in the prison, the Doctor is ordering Susan about, again without explanation, telling her to get behind the door out of sight and be quiet. He goes off to troll the jailer, this time to convince him that Susan has escaped. As the jailer rushes into the apparently empty cell, the Doctor cracks him over the head with a jug, and he and Susan make a run for it…straight into Lemaitre. Who immediately calls the guards. Bugger.

The jailer snitches to Lemaitre, but the Doctor cuts him off, rather hilariously claiming to be capable of explaining everything himself...later, probably. Lemaitre thinks it’s about time he and the Doctor had a talk.

The Doctor insists that Susan be released, and asks whether Lemaitre knows who he is; Lemaitre says he intends to find out, and produces…the Doctor’s ring! And his clothes! The Doctor continues to bluff it out, but it becomes increasingly apparent that Lemaitre knows everything, even that Susan is the Doctor’s granddaughter. And unless the Doctor helps him, Susan stays under lock and key. In fact, to cut a long story short, either the Doctor takes him to Jules’s hideout or Susan stays a jailbird.

Back at Aristo HQ, Ian and Barbara are rather frostily fretting about the whereabouts of the Doctor and Susan. Ian apologises about Léon, and Babs sort of accepts, saying she wants to apologise to Jules. Then this happens:

Well, it’s good to know that the morbid, ‘I hear dead people’ Barbara from The Aztecs is still alive and kicking. I also like that we get this little beats to acknowledge that actually these humans have seen a hell of a lot of death. And these are humans who lived through the Blitz.

Enter Jules. Babs apologises, and Jules interrupts her, saying that she said what she said because of Léon the man, but that he did what he did because of what Léon represents. Erm, what is this bullshit? Did she say anything at all about Léon the man? I’m pretty sure the point of her speech wasn’t just that good people fought for the revolution but also that the revolution also had its good points when you took extremists out of the equation. In fact I heard it as something of an impassioned plea for not allowing extremists to undermine something fundamentally good. But maybe I’m just getting topical. Also, as I say, I will fight anyone who says Babs lost her rag just because she supposedly fancied Léon.

However, I do like Jules’s next bit of speechifying, if only for the nuance to the whole thing. When he asks whether they all wondered why he was living in the shadows etc., Ian says he assumed it was because Jules was an aristo and therefor on the other side. Jules shakes his head sadly and informs them he has no title or position but is thoroughly in the middle, and ‘hate[s] to see order thrown out of the window like so much dust’. Essentially, he just doesn’t like anarchy. And when Babs tries to reach out about Léon being his friend, he cuts across her with a new binary: those who rule by fear and treachery versus those who fight for reason and justice. So essentially the politics of fear versus the politics of…well, hope, I suppose. Topical. Oh, and then he says that ‘anyone who betrays these principles [of reason and justice] is worse than the devil in hell’…which is startlingly similar to the kind of rhetoric Remainers (of which I am one) use when they try to claim that all Brexiters (rather than…y’know…some) are racist twunts like Farage, and demonise working class voters rather than considering the possibility that it’s precisely that sort of thing that gives racist twunts like Farage an opportunity to steal votes from the traditional voter base of a complacent and disorganised left (GET IT TOGETHER, GUYS). Ahem. Sorry, it’s only 1 January 2017 as I write this; I’m still angry about 2016.

Oh, is that someone at the door? Phew! Or not phew? It’s the Doctor and Lemaitre! Jules is raging: ‘YOUR FRIEND HAS BETRAYED US!’

BLESS US AND SPLASH US, PRECIOUS, IS THIS IT FOR TEAM TARDIS? WILL JULES SHOOT THE DOCTOR NOW, TOO? WHAT’S LEMAITRE’S DEAL? ARE THEY ALL SCUPPERED, OR IS THERE MORE TO THIS EAVESDROPPING JOBSWORTH THAN MEETS THE EYE? WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO SUSAN NOW? WILL WE GET MORE POLITICAL DEBATES OR WILL THERE JUST BE A LOT OF DERPING AROUND IN MOBCAPS? WILL THEY EVER FIND THESE EPISODES SO WE CAN WATCH BARBARA SCHOOLING IAN WITH MORE THAN A HANDFUL OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS?

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? NOPE. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL.

Is the gaze problematic? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion(s) dressed 'for the Dads'? No. Though Susan and Barbara finally get to show a bit of clavicle. Scandalous.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? Nope.

Does a woman wander off alone for the sole dramatic purpose of getting into trouble so she can be rescued later? Nope. But Susan's entire dramatic function for the rest of the serial is to be in need of rescue so as to keep using the prison set and keep Team Tardis in the thick of it. Having said that, Ian goes off to meet Léon alone for the sole dramatic purpose of getting into trouble so he can be rescued later by Jules and get into an argument with Babs over the rights and wrongs of killing Léon.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? Yup. Susan and Barbara. And Ian, to be fair.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? The Doctor's has to rescue Barbara and Susan from jail.

Is a woman placed under threat of actual bodily harm? Ish? I'm assuming they're going to guillotine Susan and Babs. Though Ian is most in danger of physical injury this week.

Does a woman have to deal with a sexual predator? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? No.

Does a woman companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? No.

Is a woman 'spared' the ordeal of having to do/witness something unpleasant by a man who makes a decision on her behalf/keeps her deliberately ignorant? No.

Does a man automatically disbelieve or belittle something a woman (companion) says happened to her? No. Though Ian and Jules do belittle her opinions on the French Revolution by implying it's personal because of her feelings towards Léon.

Does a man talk over a woman or talk about a woman as though she isn't there? No.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed/comforted by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? No. Susan a tiny bit but entirely within reason.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode's antagonist(s)? Nope. Ian is most gratuitously menaced this week.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? No.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? No. This week it's all about the Doctor telling the women to follow his instructions without question. To her credit, Babs manages to look sceptical about the efficacy of his plans.

Does the woman companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? No.

Does a woman come up with a theory and is it ridiculed by the Doctor/a man? Yes. Barbara's relativist take on the French Revolution.

Does a woman call the Doctor out on his bullshit? A bit. 

Does a woman get to be a badass? Babs delivers a zinger or two to Ian when they're arguing, so yes.

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? Not really. The Doctor seems to be pulling the strings this week.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? Not specific to the past, I wouldn't say.

Does a 'present'-day character call anybody out on past/future/alien sexism? N/A.

Does an past/future/alien person have the hots for a woman companion and is it reciprocated? Yes and sod it I'm going to say no.

Did a woman write/direct/produce this episode? No/No/Yes.

Verdict

Obviously I’m delighted that the humans get to have another spat this week, as I genuinely love it when Barbara and Ian argue about the important stuff. Also it’s about time Babs got to tear a strip off someone, as she’s not done it for a while. And it’s about history, too, which makes it extra brilliant. Ian’s been through the mill a bit, so I hope he gets a break soon. He’s also rather short-sighted when it comes to the politics of it all, which is interesting and unusual. Susan alas is benched for most of this episode. Which is shit. I don’t even care if it’s because Carole Ann Ford was on holiday (which I can’t be arsed to find out); Ian got to be James Bond in his weeks off. Also, Susan being behind bars means this episode fails the Bechdel test. Also also, how infuriating is it that this week Susan's illness is no big deal the moment there's another plot device available to render her surplus to requirements? POOR FUCKING SHOW. The Doctor continues to be a slippery customer, and I do wish we got to see his sly old face. He’s irritatingly paternalistic in all his do-what-I-say-without-question instructions to Susan and Babs, but I can’t help but find his interactions with Barbara in their cell utterly charming. Especially all the giggling over his attire. Next week, I get to work with moving people again—hurrah! Let’s have more political Babs, please, and something for Susan to do!